ALPHARETTA, Ga., -- The U.S. Army Office of the Chief of Chaplains has refuted a report in The Miami Herald that one of its chaplains coerced soldiers to be baptized in Iraq, the Baptist Press reported.

The Herald report, which appeared April 4 and was picked up nationally by news services, indicated that Lt. Josh Llano was pitching baptism as a way to get clean physically and spiritually. The chaplain's office investigated the report and said that was not the case, BP reported.

"He did make some of the remarks the reporter attributed to him, but not all to her, and not in the context or with the intent the article appeared to suggest," a statement from the chaplain's office said.

The statement also noted that there was no critical shortage of water at Camp Bushmaster that would make filling the 500-gallon baptismal pool inappropriate.

"Soldiers had no need to resort to being baptized to get clean," the statement said. It also noted Llano had conducted 57 baptisms at the camp.

"Most were soldiers who already practiced a Christian religion and wanted to be baptized either as a reaffirmation of their faith or because they had never been baptized previously," the statement said.

"It is quite common for soldiers who do not actively practice religion in peacetime to turn to religion for comfort and solace in times of danger and grief. That is one reason why Army Chaplains are deployed with the troops and go wherever they go, risking their lives in the same way the soldiers do."

In a Religion News Service report, Mark Seibel, managing editor of The Miami Herald, defended the original story by Meg Laughlin, a Herald reporter.

"I don't think the story suggested coercion," he said. "That's just how some people want to read it."